Wednesday 19 November 2008

Putting the power in the play

Scorpicity has written a nice piece on the effect of the new powerplay rules in limited overs cricket, where the batting team chooses the timing of the third poewrplay. Soulberry raises a good point which I had been wondering about myself - will it all be predictable once the concept has been around for a while and the players/captains have got used to it?

In the game going on now at the SCG, Queensland look like they might have had a predetermined idea of when their powerplay should be taken. If the bowling team generally prefers to take it as soon as possible, then as the batting team, they should leave it to the last five overs, right? But being 9/146 after 45 overs, I can't help thinking that they missed an opportunity somewhere. (As an aside, the NSW second string bowling attack seems to have done pretty well in their last two matches. Are NZ and Qld good enough for that to mean something?)

Could Queensland have done better? The new rules are quite a departure from anything previously seen in cricket, in the sense that they give the batsmen control over what the bowling captain is allowed to do. They might take some getting uesd to. But they also make more sense in a way. Now a team is choosing when they might benefit from a powerplay, rather than deciding when they might be least bothered by being restricted. For that reason, I think it just might not be quite so predictable.

8 comments:

Soulberry said...

The most memorable usage of the third powerplay will be recorded by savvy captains. It is a poker game and may also dictate redistribution of the batting order to retain at least one good batsman lower down in case the batting captain hasdecided he'll take the PP later.

Maybe that's what keeps Bopara so low down...

Thanks for the mention Jonathan.

Jonathan said...

Good point about the implications for the batting order! There are a lot of possibilities, aren't there. Hopefully Ponting won't take forever considering all of them ;-)

As I type, NSW have just been bowled out in the 45th over. They took the PP, but managed to lose 4 wickets rather than capitalise. It's a risky business!

Anonymous said...

Leaving it till the end will be a dicey one in case wickets fall in a heap like what happened in this match.

So the predictability make come in terms of exercising the batter's powerplay either at the start before the 20th over when the ball is hard or in the middle overs when the ball change happens (again a harder ball).

The harder ball may be a big factor.

Thanks for the mention Jonathan.

Jonathan said...

It really needs a few of the savvy captains Soulberry was talking about. If we see too times where the Powerplay decisions flop, then captains are more likely to take the "safe" options.

And no worries for the mentions - not only did the two of you get me thinking, but I can't get that image of the butterflies out of my head!

straight point said...

hmm...you must be referring to this game jon...

Jonathan said...

That's the one... looks like a perfect example of what you were saying.

Soulberry said...

Jonthan, are you covering the first test to commence shortly?

Jonathan said...

I'm keeping an eye on the scores in between meetings, but there seems to be a delay related to the big storms up there. We had some decent rain here too, overnight. Some of it ended up in our kitchen - hopefully there aren't big problems with the building.